Multigenerational, Multipurpose Landscapes and Seascapes in the Western Aleutian Islands

Summary

The landscape and seascape surrounding tiny Corvie Bay (400m wide) on southern Kiska Island in the western Aleutian Islands were occupied by the Qax̂un for 3,000 years. During their use of the area, they transformed the surrounding seas and lands from narrowly defined water tracks and lightly encamped places to deeply imbued, intensively inhabited, and probably owned sea and land spaces. This same pattern of imbuement, use, and ownership was reenacted throughout the western Aleutians over the past 6,000 years. Our intensive survey of the peninsulas surrounding Corvie Bay in 2014 revealed a diverse suite of village, camp, and non-utilitarian feature clusters. Few of the clusters were occupied simultaneously and all would have been visible to later occupants of the area. The archaeological record of the Corvie Bay area offers evidence for complexly accreting history, but little explanation. Because the Qax̂un were ancestral Aleut/Unangan people, traditional Aleut stories offer sources for hypotheses about the changing meaning of landscapes and seascapes across generations.